Sheridan Susan Rich
Med Hypotheses. 2005;64(2):417-27. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2004.09.002.
A model of human language requires a theory of meaningful marks. Humans are the only species who use marks to think. A theory of marks identifies children's scribbles as significant behavior, while hypothesizing the importance of rotational systems to hominid brain evolution. By recognizing the importance of children's scribbles and drawings in developmental terms as well as in evolutionary terms, a marks-based rather than a predominantly speech-based theory of the human brain, language, and consciousness emerges. Combined research in anthropology, primatology, art history, neurology, child development (including research with deaf and blind children), gender studies and literacy suggests the importance of notational systems to human language, revealing the importance of mother/child interactions around marks and sounds to the development of an expressive, communicative, symbolic human brain. An understanding of human language is enriched by identifying marks carved on bone 1.9 million years ago as observational lunar calendar-keeping, pushing proto-literacy back dramatically. Neurologically, children recapitulate the meaningful marks of early hominins when they scribble and draw, reminding us that literacy belongs to humankind's earliest history. Even more than speech, such meaningful marks played - and continue to play - decisive roles in human brain evolution. The hominid brain required a model for integrative, transformative neural transfer. The research strongly suggests that humankind's multiple literacies (art, literature, scientific writing, mathematics and music) depended upon dyadic exchanges between hominid mothers and children, and that this exchange and sharing of visuo-spatial information drove the elaboration of human speech in terms of syntax, grammar and vocabulary. The human brain was spatial before it was linguistic. The child scribbles and draws before it speaks or writes. Children babble and scribble within the first two years of life. Hands and mouths are proximal on the sensory-motor cortex. Gestures accompany speech. Illiterate brains mis-pronounce nonsense sounds. Literate brains do not. Written language (work of the hands) enhances spoken language (work of the mouth). Until brain scans map the neurological links between human gesture, speech and marks in the context of mother/caregiver/child interactions, and research with literate and illiterate brains document even more precisely the long-term differences between these brains, the evolutionary pressure of marks on especially flexible maternal and infant brain tissue that occurred 1.9 million years, radically changing primate brain capabilities, requires an integrated theory of marks and mind.
人类语言模型需要一种关于有意义符号的理论。人类是唯一使用符号进行思考的物种。一种符号理论将儿童的涂鸦视为重要行为,同时假设旋转系统对原始人类大脑进化的重要性。通过认识到儿童涂鸦和绘画在发展以及进化方面的重要性,一种基于符号而非主要基于言语的关于人类大脑、语言和意识的理论应运而生。人类学、灵长类学、艺术史、神经学、儿童发展(包括对聋哑和失明儿童的研究)、性别研究和读写能力方面的综合研究表明符号系统对人类语言的重要性,揭示了围绕符号和声音的母婴互动对具有表达性、交际性、象征性的人类大脑发展的重要性。通过将190万年前刻在骨头上的符号认定为观察性的农历记录,原始读写能力被大幅提前,这丰富了我们对人类语言的理解。从神经学角度来看,儿童涂鸦和绘画时重现了早期原始人类的有意义符号,这提醒我们读写能力属于人类最早的历史。这种有意义的符号在人类大脑进化中所起的作用——而且仍在起的作用——甚至比言语还要重要。原始人类的大脑需要一个整合性、转换性神经传递的模型。研究有力地表明,人类的多种读写能力(艺术、文学、科学写作、数学和音乐)依赖于原始人类母婴之间的二元交流,并且这种视觉空间信息的交流和共享推动了人类言语在句法、语法和词汇方面的发展。人类大脑在具备语言能力之前就已具备空间能力。儿童在会说话或写字之前就会涂鸦和绘画。儿童在生命的头两年里就会咿呀学语和涂鸦。手和嘴在感觉运动皮层上位置相近。手势伴随着言语。不识字的大脑会读错无意义的声音。识字的大脑则不会。书面语言(手的工作)增强了口语(嘴的工作)。在脑部扫描绘制出人类手势、言语和符号在母婴/照顾者/儿童互动背景下的神经联系,以及对识字和不识字大脑的研究更精确地记录这些大脑之间的长期差异之前,190万年前符号对极其灵活的母婴脑组织产生的进化压力,从根本上改变了灵长类动物的大脑能力,这需要一种符号与思维的综合理论。